Wednesday, June 20, 2012

"Wounds and Weeds: Plants that can help keep characters alive" by Kevin J. Anderson appeared in Dragon #82, February 1984 and was reprinted in one of the Best of collections. It had some good ideas in it for using detailed herbalism in a D&D setting, but was just a bit too cumbersome for my tastes. Here's my attempt to cut it down to a manageable size.

Adder's Tongue Tea - Doubles natural healing for the day consumed. 25gp buys enough to make into 20 cups of tea.

Birthwort Poultice - Grants a second saving throw against poisons if applied within one round, magic poisons and venom from weird or magical monsters excluded. 15gp per poultice.

Comfrey Root - Heals d4 damage to one wound if applied within one round. 10gp per root.

Garlic Juice - If applied bodily has a 50% chance of repelling insects. Applied locally it heals one point per each insect sting or bite. May ward off vampies. 7gp per vial.

Juniperberry Paste - Mash into mouth to grant d4-1 points to any character that is unconscious or at death's door, but further strenuous activity that day will do d4 more damage. Elves are affected as if by a love/lust potion unless they save versus poison. 15gp per per dose, worth 10 times as much to some elves.

Kingscandle Flowers in Wine - A vial of this painkiller will remove 1 hit point of damage from d4 wounds. 8gp per vial.

The prices are completely bogus, by the way. Anderson didn't give any so I just plugged some half-assed numbers in there. Assume they include a ridiculous mark-up for rude adventurers flush with cash. Also, don't assume that all herbs are equally available everywhere.

To make some of these work hit points need to be tracked on a 'per wound' basis. Here is how that would work. Get out a separate scrap of paper and mark it up like so:

Now you know that Marshwort Leaf can help with the orc-inflicted cut an Sweetweed applied to the face will soothe what ails you. Magical healing should probably be applied to one wound at a time. If you heal a whole wound, any overage can be applied to the next one. Natural healing is distributed randomly.

Thorgar's player is obviously expecting that Marshwort to help with the orc-slash.

Optional Rule: Any single wound of six points or more is considered a severe wound and incapacitates the character for a -1 to-hit and saves. The penalty is removed when the wound is reduced to 5 points or less. That ought to give the players an additional complication to worry about when healing people.

For even more fun track the wounds received and healed on a single record you keep for an entire campaign.

"Man, is there anything Jeff CAN'T do when it comes to gaming? This guy is like a critical 20 every roll. Jeff can bite the heads offa five game geeks, including their sorry-ass DM, and spit 'em into a large duffel bag ONE AT A TIME!...that's just the kind of messed up bastard he is! You think yer a gamer, punk? Well..do ya? Jeff will depants your weasel-ass right in front of your grandma."